Juggernaut

“ It is true that on certain holy days the great image of Juggernaut, or Jagernath, whichever way you choose to spell it, and it weighs many tons, is placed upon a car and the car is drawn through the crowded streets by thousands of pilgrims, who cast flowers, rice, wheat, palm leaves, bamboo wisps, sweetmeats and other offerings in its way. Occasionally in the throng that presses around the image some one is thrown down and has the life trampled out of him ”

“ Their houses are on the sea shore, about a mile from the temple. They cannot live nearer, on account of the offensive effluvia of the town. For, independently of the enormity of the superstition, there are circumstances which render Juggernaut noisome in an extreme degree. The senses are assailed by the squalid and ghastly appearance of the famished pilgrims ; many of whom die in the streets of want or of disease; while the devotees, with clotted hair and painted flesh, are seen practising their various amusements, and modes of self torture. ”

“ Jugurtha, meanwhile, continued to follow them along the hills, watching for a favourable opportunity or situation for an attack. He destroyed the forage, and spoiled the water, which was scarce, wherever he found that the enemy were coming. He presented himself sometimes to Metellus, and sometimes to Marius; he would attack their rear upon a march, and instantly retreat to the hills; he would threaten sometimes one point, and sometimes another, neither giving battle nor allowing rest, but making it his object to retard the progress of the enemy. ”

“ How should he care to note the null, impassive countenance of the one man, the grizzled stolid bourgeois aspect of the other?
The manager, keenly alive to the success of the [386] entertainment, advanced a number of the programme since the pistol trick was discarded. Having observed the fate of this from the wings, he handed to Royce a flower-pot filled with earth for a feat which it had been his intention to reserve until after the first act of the play.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen,” said the juggler, “oblige me by looking at this acorn. It is considered quite harmless. ”

“ The townspeople showed equal courage; men were fighting or making preparations at all points, and both sides were more eager to wound one another than to protect themselves. There was a din of mingled encouragement, exultation, and groans; the clash of arms also rose to heaven, and a shower of missiles fell on both sides. But whenever the besiegers relaxed their assault ever so little, the defenders of the walls became interested spectators of the cavalry battle. As Jugurtha’s fortunes shifted, you might see them now joyful, now alarmed ”

“ The danger had come very near. Rough handling might well be encountered amongst these primitive wights, inflamed by pulpit oratory and religious excitement, and abetted by their pastoral guide. “In two minutes,” he went on, “I can teach you to perform this simple feat which seems to you impossible to human agency. It is nothing but sleight of hand, a sort of knack.”
For one moment Parson Greenought hesitated, beguiled. His eye kindled with curiosity and eagerness; he made as though he would leave the bench whereon he was ensconced, to approach the alluring juggler. ”

“ Jugurtha, while he endeavoured to rally his men, and to maintain the advantage he had gained, was enclosed both on the right and left by our horse; when, by a desperate effort, he broke singly through the enemy, and escaped amid a shower of darts. By this time Marius, who had routed the cavalry, came to the relief of that division of the army which was said to be giving way, and by his presence helped to complete the victory.
CVIII The field now displayed a shocking spectacle of carnage and destruction; some flying, others pursuing; some killed, others taken prisoners ”

“ Whether famine or the sword presses hardest on me I am unable to say. My wretched situation discourages me from writing at greater length concerning Jugurtha; having learned by experience how little credit is given to the miserable: this, however, I will venture to add, that I am sensible he aims at something beyond my ruin, and that he can never expect to enjoy my kingdom and your friendship; which of these he prefers to the other can be a secret to none. First he murdered my brother Hiempsal ”

“ Said the hesitating manager, unconscious of this interlude, “I don’t half like that basket trick.”
“Why?” demanded the juggler, surprised. “It’s the best thing I can do. And when we rehearsed it, I thought we had it down to a fine point.”
“Yes,” still hesitating, “but I’m afraid it’s dangerous.”
The juggler burst into laughter. “It’s as dangerous as a pistol loaded with blank cartridges! See here,” he cried joyously, turning with outspread arms to the group of youths fantastic in their stage toggery, “I call you all to witness—if ever Millden Seymour hurts me, I intended to let him do it. ”

“ With this answer the ambassadors departed, without being allowed access to Adherbal. Jugurtha, when he thought they had left Africa, perceiving it impossible to take Cirta by assault, on account of its natural strength, begirt it with a trench and rampart, raised towers, and filled them with armed men. He likewise tried day and night all possible methods both of force and stratagem; one while tempting the besieged with promises, another endeavouring to terrify them by his threats; constantly animating his men, and pushing every necessary measure with the utmost diligence. ”

“ They all bein’ valley folks, mebbe he hev some valley books ter sell ter ’em.”
“I have no doubt of it!” cried the juggler in delighted anticipation. He looked down for a moment, dubious of the wisdom of the course he had in contemplation, but with a quick joy beating at his heart. It was but natural, he argued within himself, recognizing the access of pleasure, that, [305] young and debarred as he was from the society of his equals, he should experience a satisfaction in these fleeting glimpses of life as he had once known it, and in its attraction for him was no harbinger of regret and rue. ”

“ If a raylet fell to earth in the forest, it was not appreciable in the sombre depths, and the juggler, with all his craft, might hardly have made shift to follow his companion but for the spark and the light luminous smoke of the mountaineer’s pipe. Suddenly, as they turned a sharp edge of a series of great rocks, that like flying buttresses projected out from the steep perpendicular wall of a crag above them, all at once growing visible, a white flare shone before their eyes, illumining all the surrounding woods. ”

“ Not even those of our men who had remained at a distance were wholly protected by their timidity, for very many of them were wounded by javelins hurled from engines or by hand. Thus the valiant and the craven were in like danger but of unlike repute.
LVIII While this struggle was going on at Zama, Jugurtha unexpectedly fell upon the Roman camp with a large force, and through the carelessness of the guards, who were looking for anything rather than a battle, forced one of the gates. ”

“ Now, it is more incumbent on you, Jugurtha, as surpassing your brethren in age and wisdom, to take care that no dissensions arise; for in all contests, the most powerful, even though he receive an injury, is still thought to have been the aggressor. ”

“ Jugurtha then, as he had determined, paid a visit to the consul’s camp, where, having made a short address to the council, respecting the odium cast upon his conduct, and his desire for a capitulation, he arranged other matters with Bestia and Scaurus in secret; and the next day, as if by an evident majority of voices [103] , he was formally allowed to surrender. But, as was demanded in the hearing of the council, thirty elephants, a considerable number of cattle and horses, and a small sum of money, were delivered into the hands of the quæstor. ”

“ The juggler was hardly disposed to felicitate himself upon this feat of simulation which had served to deceive the whole of his native city, and to bury a stranger, as it were, in his own grave. He began to pity the plight of the dead if they could so yearningly remember the life they had left. ”

“ Jumbo and Ware met upon the mattress with their close-shaven heads looking like bulldogs' jowls; and they shook hands—if one can imagine bulldogs shaking hands.
Jumbo had two cardinal principles, but he could put neither of them into practice in the first maneuvers: the first was always to try to get out of one difficulty by dumping the opponent into another; the second was always to try for straight-arm leverages. ”

“ It was with a good-natured feigning of interest that the young men pressed round, at first, all willing to aid the salving of the honest pride which their offering had evidently so lacerated. But this gave way to an excitement that had rarely been paralleled at New Helvetia Springs, as feat [365] succeeded feat. The juggler was soon eager to get away, having served his purpose of eluding their bounty, but this was more difficult than he had anticipated. ”

“ This expression sunk deeper in Jugurtha’s mind than was imagined: distracted with rage and fear, he was eagerly bent on the destruction of Hiempsal, and continually meditating by what secret means to effect it. But these operating too slowly for the violence of his resentment, which was not in the least abated, he determined to execute his design at any rate. ”

“ Perhaps they were as well content, however, with the appearance of two live rabbits from the folds of the large white silk handkerchief of an old gentleman in the crowd, borrowed for the purpose, and the little boy who came up to receive the article for restoration to its owner went into an ecstasy of cackling delight, with the whole front row in delirious refrain, to find that he had one of the live rabbits in each of the pockets of his jacket, albeit the juggler had merely leaned over the footlights to hand him back the handkerchief. ”

“ It is no fault of mine, Fathers of the Senate, that I often address an appeal to you; on the contrary, I am constrained by the violence of Jugurtha, who is possessed with such a desire for my destruction that he regards neither you nor the immortal Gods, but above everything thirsts for my blood. Hence it is that I, though an ally and friend of the Roman people, have now for more than four months been held in a state of siege, and that neither the services of my father Micipsa nor your decrees avail me; whether sword or famine press harder one I know not. ”

“ XLIX Therefore on this hill, which we have shown was extended across Metellus’ march, Jugurtha sat down, with the line of his own men stretched out to a great length. Over the elephants and part of the infantry he placed Bomilcar, and instructs him what to do. He himself nearer the mountain draws up his men with all his cavalry and his picked infantry; and then going round the several troops and companies, he admonishes and beseeches them, that mindful of their valour and victory, they should defend themselves and their kingdom from the avarice of the Romans. ”

“ My father, through age, yielded to the lot of human nature; Jugurtha, trampling on every tie of nature and gratitude, imbrued his wicked hands in the blood of my brother. My other friends and relations, wherever he took them, he has destroyed by a variety of cruel deaths: some he has crucified; others he has thrown to wild beasts; those few whose lives he has spared are imprisoned in gloomy dungeons, there to lead a life more insupportable than death, in sorrow and anguish. ”

“ For all the art of the juggler, he could show naught of magic more unnatural, more ghastly, than the face of the lime-burner as it appeared through the medium of the heated air arising from the primitive kiln,—protean, distorted by every current of the night’s breath,—although it was of much significance to him, and later he came to know it well to his cost. ”

“ As of late he had fallen into the habit, with the opportunity afforded at meal-times, of contemplating her with swift and furtive glances, more than once their eyes met, to the visible embarrassment of both; the juggler, to his astonishment, coloring furiously as might any country boy, and a touch of surprise and almost inquiry becoming visible in the eyes of Euphemia. Strange that so poor and primitive a contrivance as a pallid tallow dip could set such stars of radiant beauty in those long-lashed pensive orbs. ”

“ And if in the ensuing excitements his mind did not match his lowly attitude, the juggler is not the only man who has ever been upon his knees with no prayer in his heart. Taking license from the stir near at hand, he too shifted his posture that his furtive glance might command a view of the man thus deputed to pray.
The suppliant was among the congregation, but his face, as he knelt in an open space near the pulpit, was irradiated by the slant of the sunset glow. Beheld above the benches and the kneeling congregation, it had a singularly detached effect,—it was like the painting of a head ”

“ I only fear this, lest the private favour of Jugurtha, not enough understood, should lead astray any men; who I understand are striving with all their power, canvassing and importuning you man by man, not to determine any thing concerning him in his absence, while his cause is unheard; that I am making up a story, and pretending exile, who might have remained in my kingdom. But would that I could see him, by whose impious crime I am hurled into these miseries, pretending these same things, and that at length either with you or the immortal gods there should arise some regard for human affairs ”

“ When they were all fatigued with their march during the night, and Sylla was preparing, at sunrise, to pitch his camp, the Moorish cavalry announced that Jugurtha was encamped about two miles in advance. At this report, great dismay fell upon our men; for they believed themselves betrayed by Volux, and led into an ambuscade. Some exclaimed that they ought to take vengeance on him at once, and not to suffer such perfidy to remain unpunished. ”